Kathmandu, May 5

On Wednesday morning a meeting of the UCPN-Maoist party’s office bearers decided that the time was just right for Chairman Prachanda to stake his claim over the country’s premiership. Prachanda even appealed to all parties to help him form a government of national consensus. But he could not stick to his words even for 24 hours, and decided not to withdraw support to the KP Oli government.
So why did Prachanda change his mind overnight? Five reasons:

1.

Prachanda never wanted to abandon comrade Oli

Although Prachanda appealed to all parties to help him for a government of national consensus, he did not do it because he wanted to. In fact, both Prachanda and his deputy Narayan Kaji Shrestha never wanted to part ways with comrade Oli. But during Wednesday’s meeting of party office bearers, the duo was under immense pressure from party leaders Barshaman Pun and Krishna Bahadur Mahara to leave the government.

2.

Deuba could not assure Prachanda PM post was his for taking

When news broke that Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba was ready to offer Prachanda premiership, rumours were afoot that the NC leader wanted use the Maoist chief as a gambit to get to power. But Deuba could not take Prachanda into confidence, nor could he dispel the rumours.

3.

Oli sweet-talked Dahal into dropping idea

Although Prachanda and Oli were not in good terms during the early stages of the peace process, their relationship improved during the final stages of the constitution-writing process. In addition to this, Oli knows how to sweet-talk Prachanda into doing something that he may not necessarily like doing. Oli convinced Prachanda that he would make him Prime Minister after the budget session was over. Prachanda thought this was a better idea than teaming up with a non-communist party.

 4.

Public criticism, and social media chatter

Soon after Prachanda appealed to all parties to support his bid to form a government of national unity, Prachanda was heavily crticised by the public, who took to social media to express their discontent. There was a flurry of open letters and articles calling on Prachanda to not to help toppled the government. In addition to that the ruling alliance member RPPN said it would not support the Maoist bid against the Oli government.

5.

 

The Indian angle

Prachanda knew that the plan to topple the government was cooked up in Delhi, where Maoist leader Mahara and NC chief Deuba had met earlier this month. Overnight Prachanda took stock of what India stood to gain from Oli’s exit, and decided that it would not be in his own interest. Then he decided to take a U-turn.